Knight Rider Squee--The Slash Version
(Sorry, eafm, still not the story, forgive me for teasing. *grins*)
This is one of the slashiest shows in the history of *ever*! Right up there with Starsky & Hutch, Riptide, and The Sentinel. They work and play together. They spend almost all their time alone with each other. They banter and snark. They save each other's lives, regularly. Neither of them have deep emotional attachments except to each other. Each of them, in their own way, is jealous and/or possessive. If they were both human characters...well, the show wouldn't have been nearly so much fun, but it would probably have been a slash classic like Starsky & Hutch.
The first thing I want to say in squeeing about this show from a slashy point of view is that it's some of the weirdest slash I've written. Not merely, I hasten to point out, because one of the participants is not human or even, technically, *organic*. That's a surmountable obstacle and a rich and delicious source of angst. (In other words, there's basically no bad there.)
The weird thing is that Michael's *straight*. Clearly and obviously straight as a poker. He likes women socially, he likes women sexually, he likes women romantically. He likes women, full stop. There is no amount of subtextual hunting that can make Michael anything *but* straight, at least not that I can find (though I do confess to having somewhat less powerful slash glasses than some other folks do).
That said, Michael's clearly got a very special attachment to KITT. And you can see it starting in the Pilot, which is a happy thing. From, seriously, the very first moment he lays eyes on KITT, Michael's positive that's his car. Repeats it several times during that first scene of them together. Insists on it when Devon (who's honestly in a far better position to know) says otherwise. "That's my car." This is reiterated at the end of the pilot, "When do I get my car back?", even though he spent a lot of the episode sorting out the first steps of a friendship with KITT.
For his part, KITT is programmed to accept Michael as his driver in a unique way. Though KITT does, sometimes, allow other people to drive him it's almost always with Michael's explicit agreement. And Devon tells Michael in the pilot that KITT's primary function in his programming is to protect human life, particularly his driver. Not just whoever's in the driver's seat, but specifically Michael. From KITT's point of view, Michael is his only proper driver, the one he was programmed to be with.
Later on this initial attachment gets deeper. In the second season episode Soul Survivor, KITT is removed from the car and put in a portable TV set ("Oh, Michael, do I look just dreadful?") When they later encounter the *car* (sans KITT) Michael comments on the fact that it lacked KITT's soul. This might just be me, but soul-talk of that sort is *incredibly* romantic and passionate to me. (One of the most romantic moments in the history of film in my eyes was in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock when Kirk tells his superior officer, "If Spock has an immortal soul, it's my responsibility, just as surely as if it were my own.")
In another episode KITT confesses to being very fond of Michael Knight. I believe it was the episode where Michael lost his memory of his time with the Foundation, and with KITT. Given how understated KITT is about his emotions, and the plaintive and almost desperate way he was trying to get Michael to remember him, it says *volumes*.
In the episode, Junkyard Dogs, Michael again fights to keep KITT and it's a lovely thing to watch. If rather sniffly.
Most of the shows I slash I have no real attachment to when they get together. Often, I prefer it to be after the series is over. I hate the thought that Jim and Blair would have to go through SenToo and TSbyBS when they've got a committed relationship with one another. Same with Chris and Vin and Obsession. But Michael and KITT, I don't see it taking them long. Or, hrm, I don't see it taking long for the emotions to be there--it might take them a while to start overcoming the apparent impossibility of it. But still, I don't really see them not having some sort of, erm, *understanding* with one another if not by the end of season 1 then by the middle of season 2.
I don't believe for a minute that Michael's got a paraphilia, kink, fetish or anything else for cars. But he loves KITT, who happens to be a car. I don't think that love would have changed if KITT had been forced to stay in the portable TV.
There's probably more I should mention, but I don't want to give away too much of my thinking for the story series I'm working on. And I'm starting to fall asleep.
This is one of the slashiest shows in the history of *ever*! Right up there with Starsky & Hutch, Riptide, and The Sentinel. They work and play together. They spend almost all their time alone with each other. They banter and snark. They save each other's lives, regularly. Neither of them have deep emotional attachments except to each other. Each of them, in their own way, is jealous and/or possessive. If they were both human characters...well, the show wouldn't have been nearly so much fun, but it would probably have been a slash classic like Starsky & Hutch.
The first thing I want to say in squeeing about this show from a slashy point of view is that it's some of the weirdest slash I've written. Not merely, I hasten to point out, because one of the participants is not human or even, technically, *organic*. That's a surmountable obstacle and a rich and delicious source of angst. (In other words, there's basically no bad there.)
The weird thing is that Michael's *straight*. Clearly and obviously straight as a poker. He likes women socially, he likes women sexually, he likes women romantically. He likes women, full stop. There is no amount of subtextual hunting that can make Michael anything *but* straight, at least not that I can find (though I do confess to having somewhat less powerful slash glasses than some other folks do).
That said, Michael's clearly got a very special attachment to KITT. And you can see it starting in the Pilot, which is a happy thing. From, seriously, the very first moment he lays eyes on KITT, Michael's positive that's his car. Repeats it several times during that first scene of them together. Insists on it when Devon (who's honestly in a far better position to know) says otherwise. "That's my car." This is reiterated at the end of the pilot, "When do I get my car back?", even though he spent a lot of the episode sorting out the first steps of a friendship with KITT.
For his part, KITT is programmed to accept Michael as his driver in a unique way. Though KITT does, sometimes, allow other people to drive him it's almost always with Michael's explicit agreement. And Devon tells Michael in the pilot that KITT's primary function in his programming is to protect human life, particularly his driver. Not just whoever's in the driver's seat, but specifically Michael. From KITT's point of view, Michael is his only proper driver, the one he was programmed to be with.
Later on this initial attachment gets deeper. In the second season episode Soul Survivor, KITT is removed from the car and put in a portable TV set ("Oh, Michael, do I look just dreadful?") When they later encounter the *car* (sans KITT) Michael comments on the fact that it lacked KITT's soul. This might just be me, but soul-talk of that sort is *incredibly* romantic and passionate to me. (One of the most romantic moments in the history of film in my eyes was in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock when Kirk tells his superior officer, "If Spock has an immortal soul, it's my responsibility, just as surely as if it were my own.")
In another episode KITT confesses to being very fond of Michael Knight. I believe it was the episode where Michael lost his memory of his time with the Foundation, and with KITT. Given how understated KITT is about his emotions, and the plaintive and almost desperate way he was trying to get Michael to remember him, it says *volumes*.
In the episode, Junkyard Dogs, Michael again fights to keep KITT and it's a lovely thing to watch. If rather sniffly.
Most of the shows I slash I have no real attachment to when they get together. Often, I prefer it to be after the series is over. I hate the thought that Jim and Blair would have to go through SenToo and TSbyBS when they've got a committed relationship with one another. Same with Chris and Vin and Obsession. But Michael and KITT, I don't see it taking them long. Or, hrm, I don't see it taking long for the emotions to be there--it might take them a while to start overcoming the apparent impossibility of it. But still, I don't really see them not having some sort of, erm, *understanding* with one another if not by the end of season 1 then by the middle of season 2.
I don't believe for a minute that Michael's got a paraphilia, kink, fetish or anything else for cars. But he loves KITT, who happens to be a car. I don't think that love would have changed if KITT had been forced to stay in the portable TV.
There's probably more I should mention, but I don't want to give away too much of my thinking for the story series I'm working on. And I'm starting to fall asleep.